Over the past two weeks there has been something like a
competition between Republicans and Democrats to see who can do more for
Israel by hyping Iran as a threat. Mitt Romney fired the first shot
while speaking
at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, accusing the
president of "undermining" Israel and citing the Islamic Republic as the
world's greatest threat. Barack Obama fired back with a public signing
of the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, coupled
with a leaked report that his national security adviser, Thomas Donilon,
had briefed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the details of U.S. plans to attack Iran.

Romney then traveled to Israel, where he declared
Jerusalem to be its capital, dissed the Palestinians without mentioning
them by name, and gave a green light for an Israeli attack on Iran,
while pledging to
stop Iran from acquiring the capability to engineer a nuclear weapon --
something it already has. And he promised to take steps soon, before
Tehran can harden its nuclear sites.

Obama's countermove was to send
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to Israel just after Romney departed to
reassure the Israelis that the White House is serious about using force
against Iran.

Moving on to phase two, Republicans and Democrats together are
tightening the screws on Iran. On July 25, the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations hosted a session
on "Iran's support for terrorism in the Middle East" that featured
leading neoconservatives Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise
Institute, Daniel Byman of the Brookings Institution's Saban Center, and
Matthew Levitt of the AIPAC-spawned Washington Institute for Near East
Policy (WINEP). Six days later, President Obama issued an executive
order blocking transactions from several Iranian banks and blacklisting
other foreign banks that facilitate the purchase of Iranian oil, while
the State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Terrorism for
2011. Announcing the release of the report, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin,
State's Coordinator for Counterterrorism, opined
that "Iran is and remains the preeminent terrorism sponsor in the
world." On Wednesday there was a vote in the House of Representatives on
the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, House
Resolution 1095. It had 364 co-sponsors and passed by a vote of 421 to
6. It will now go to the Senate where it could well pass unanimously.

It should surprise no one that the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) has been operating to increase pressure on Iran. There
has been a series of letters and fact sheets advising Congress on the
issue since the first draft of HR 1095 surfaced last year. It is
generally believed
that the bill was actually written by AIPAC. The following letter was
sent to every congressman on Tuesday, on the eve of the vote on the Iran
Threat Reduction Act. It was sent out on AIPAC letterhead and was
signed by Executive Director Howard Kohr and two other AIPAC officers:

We write in strong support of H.R. 1905, The Iran Threat
Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012. The legislation, authored
by Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard Berman, will be
considered by the House on Wednesday. We strongly urge you to vote YES.

In an effort to dissuade Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons
capability, the House overwhelmingly passed in December the Iran Threat
Reduction Act which tightened sanctions on Iran. The version that has
now emerged from House-Senate negotiations includes the strongest set of
sanctions ever enacted to isolate any country with which we were not in
armed hostilities. H.R. 1905 incorporates legislative initiatives of
many members from both the House and Senate and will: place virtually
all of Iran's energy, financial, and transportation sectors under U.S.
sanction. Companies conducting business with Iran in these sectors face
losing access to U.S. markets; impose sanctions designed to prevent Iran
from repatriating any proceeds from its oil sales, thus depriving Iran
of 80 percent of its hard currency earnings and half of the funds to
support its national budget; impose tough new sanctions on the National
Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC)
and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); target Iran's use
of barter transactions to bypass sanctions, the provision of insurance
to Iran's energy sector, and the provision of specialized financial
messaging services to the Central Bank of Iran; click here to learn
more about the legislation and how it will raise the pressure on Iran.

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In the past six months, the United States and our international
partners have substantially increased the economic pressure on Iran and
engaged in several rounds of talks with Tehran. Unfortunately, Iran has
rebuffed the opportunity for serious negotiations while stepping up the
pace of its nuclear program.

America and our allies must unite in a tough response to Iran's
belligerent approach. We must continue to send a strong message to
Tehran that it will face unremitting pressure until it complies with its
international obligations and end its nuclear weapons quest.

We strongly support The Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (H.R. 1905) and urge you to vote YES on Wednesday.

The letter demonstrates how AIPAC operates, and it makes several
points to support its contention that Iran is a major threat, arguments
that are either flat-out wrong or greatly exaggerated. Not surprisingly,
these arguments have been picked up in the media and by members of
Congress and have been repeated nearly verbatim as if they were fact.

The letter boasts of "the strongest set of sanctions ever enacted to
isolate any country with which we were not in armed hostilities placing
virtually all of Iran's energy, financial, and transportation sectors
under U.S. sanction." Why? "Because Iran has rebuffed the opportunity
for serious negotiations" and it has not complied "with its
international obligations and end its nuclear weapons quest." After the
vote, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who had co-sponsored the bill, echoed those
sentiments, stating that the legislation "seeks to tighten the chokehold
on the regime beyond anything that has been done before."

Philip
Giraldi is the executive director of the Council for the National
Interest and a recognized authority on international security and
counterterrorism issues. He is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist
and military intelligence officer who served eighteen years overseas in
Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Mr.
Giraldi was awarded an MA and PhD from the University of London in
European History and holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the
University of Chicago. He speaks Spanish, Italian, German, and Turkish. His columns on terrorism, intelligence, and security issues regularly appear in The American Conservative magazine, Huffington Post, and antiwar.com.
He has written op-ed pieces for the Hearst Newspaper chain, has
appeared on "Good Morning America," MSNBC, National Public Radio, and
local affiliates of ABC television. He has been a keynote speaker at the
Petroleum Industry Security Council annual meeting, has spoken twice at
the American Conservative Union's annual CPAC convention in Washington,
and has addressed several World Affairs Council affiliates. He has been
interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British
Broadcasting Corporation, Britain's Independent Television Network, FOX
News, Polish National Television, Croatian National Television,
al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, 60 Minutes, and other international and domestic
broadcasters.